Enaam Ahmed held off his hard-charging Carlin team-mate James
Pull to take his ninth win of the 2017 BRDC British F3 season, as a
mid-race downpour caused chaos throughout the field at Brands
Hatch. Lanan Racing's Toby Sowery completed the podium in third but
there was no shortage of action as heavy rain made the full Grand
Prix circuit treacherous for the slick-shod Tatuus-Cosworth
single-seaters, with a number of drivers coming to grief before the
encounter was red flagged to end the race prematurely.

Ahmed led the field away having secured his fifth pole position
of the season and as the lights went out to start the opening race
of the weekend on the majestic Grand Prix circuit he led
comfortably into Paddock Hill. His fellow front-row starter Pull
was slower away though which allowed third placed man, Fortec
Motorsports' Ben Hingeley, to vault him into the first corner.

The rest of the field filtered through the first few corners
without incident whilst Pull was busy harrying Hingeley in an
attempt to regain his second place. That let championship leader
Ahmed open up a lead of 1.458s after the opening lap, an advantage
that would prove crucial later in the race.

On lap two, Pull took his opportunity as he got a brilliant run
on his rival Hingeley down Hawthorn Hill and hung his
Tatuus-Cosworth machine around the outside of the Fortec
man through Hawthorns. He then edged ahead and completed the
stunning move to retake the position through the right-hander
Westfield. Further back, Douglas Motorsport's Callan O'Keeffe
dropped two positions to sixth as Toby Sowery and Nicolai
Kjaergaard moved up to fourth and fifth respectively. That released
Sowery who was soon onto the back of Hingeley and through to third
as he made a clean move into Paddock Hill.

The order began to settle down and as the race approached its
halfway point it looked like Ahmed would cruise to a comfortable
ninth win of the season. Approaching rain clouds looked menacing
though and spits and spots of water soon morphed into heavy rain,
making conditions treacherous.

The Fortec Motorsports' duo of Hingeley and Kjaergaard misjudged
the grip levels into Paddock Hill and both skated off into the
gravel, with barrier contact leading to Hingeley's retirement as
Kjaergaard was fortunate to escape. The next car through was
Cameron Das and he also skated straight on and into the barrier,
ending his race on the spot.

Race leader Ahmed was cautious as he continued around the lap
and that enabled Pull to close right up on the back of his
team-mate as the pair exited Clark Curve. Owing to the cars off at
Paddock Hill though the Safety Car was deployed, neutralising the
field with Ahmed holding on to the lead. As the rain began to fall
even harder, the only decision available was to red flag the race
and declare the result after 8 laps.

That ensured that Ahmed extended his championship advantage to
93 points over Toby Sowery with his ninth win of the year, as Pull
claimed his 10th podium finish of the year in
second. Sowery took third with O'Keeffe fourth and Douglas
Motorsport's Jordan Cane keeping his nose clean to finish
fifth.

Sixth went to Chris Dittmann Racing's Jeremy Wahome whilst the
front-row for the partially-reversed grid race two will be made up
of seventh and eight-placed finishers Nicolai Kjaergaard and
Krishnaraaj Mahadik.

Race two gets underway at 10:55am tomorrow morning and you
can follow all the action through live timing and updates on the
official BRDC British F3 website.